For this journey on the road to the Nobel prize, I have been asked several
times to write a biography, or at least a biographical summary of my life. I
declined these invitations. I was of the opinion that a traditional biography
should represent a lifetime of work and experience and much effort and time are
needed to do it well. In July of 1997 while on a trip to Cairo this strong
feeling softened to a more moderate one. I was stimulated to ask a few
questions by two books I was reading, one titled A
History of Knowledge by Charles van Doren and the other Making Waves by Charles Townes. How did I acquire knowledge? Why did I become a scientist? What are the forces that have determined the walks of my own life? What are the meanings of faith, destiny, and luck? In the attempt to answer such complex questions, I began to sketch my thoughts...

At 5:40 in the doggone morning on Tuesday,
October 12, Ahmed Zewail got a phone call.
But it wasn't a wrong number or a particularly
ambitious aluminum-window salesman—it was
the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences informing
him he had won the 1999 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
The citation reads, in part, that Zewail "is
being rewarded for his pioneering investigation of
fundamental chemical reactions, using ultra-short
laser flashes on the time scale on which the reactions
actually occur"...

Under the chairmanship of the inventor of the laser, Prof. Charles H. Townes surrounded by six Nobel Prize winners (Nicolaas Bloembergen, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, John L. Hall, Charles K. Kao, Herbert Kroemer, and Ahmed H. Zewail) and many other personalities in science, economics, technology and medicine, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the laser...

Organized by Universität Wien, Technischen Universität Wien, Universität für Bodenkultur, and the city of Vienna/Wiener Vorlesungen, the Fourth Vienna Seminar of Nobel Laureates was devoted to research in chemistry. Five Nobel Laureates (Robert Huber, Jean-Marie Lehn, Roger Tsien, Kurt Wüthrich, and Ahmed Zewail) were invited to reflect on their work and to share their views on science, innovation, and technology transfer with broader audiences...

This unique occasion gathers the leading competence from three broad scientific areas to discuss energy issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. This Nobel Symposium is the first to include all of the natural science categories of the Nobel Prize: physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine. The purpose is to create conditions for exchange and interaction, partly between different disciplines and partly between promising young researchers and the world's leading researchers...

The Nobel Foundation's Symposium program was initiated in 1965. Since that time
more than a hundred symposia have taken place. The symposia are devoted to
areas of science where breakthroughs are occurring or deal with other topics of
primary cultural or social significance. A series of Nobel Centennial Symposia
was organized in 2001 to commemorate 100th anniversary of the Nobel prizes given out for world-class accomplishments in physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine...

Molecular Frontiers,
a global effort to promote the understanding and appreciation of molecular science in society.

Molecular Frontiers, a world-wide virtual institute, will seek to strengthen
the position of science in society—among the public, in education and
among politicians—as a primary approach to describing and analyzing reality. The institute will provide a forum for exchange and analysis of scientific advances and their implications, and will employ various strategies to engage the public in an open dialogue. The institute's activities will promote scientific knowledge in general with special emphasis on the molecular perspective. As knowledge may be considered a right to all, global open access will be a guiding principle...

The City, with its three constituents—the University, the Research Institutes, and the Technology Pyramid—is designed to bring about effective participation in twenty-first century science, to elevate local technologies to the world level, and to increase national productivity...

At Caltech, the main mission of the newly-established Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology (UST) is to develop the science and technology for observing complex molecular structures in motion using diffraction, spectroscopy, and microscopy. Such combined atomic-scale resolutions in space and time constitute the basis for a new field of study in what we refer to as four-dimensional (4D) structural dynamics. For imaging in real time the method of choice at Caltech is 4D ultrafast electron microscopy and diffraction developed recently to provide the ability to image complex structures with the spatial resolution of electron microscopy, but with timed (femtosecond) single-electron packets. The vision is a new integrated science of structure and dynamics with the aim of deciphering the fundamental physics of chemical and biological behavior, from atoms to cells. Faculty from the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology form the core for the collaborative research at UST, the founding center of physical biology at Caltech...

More than a decade ago, one of us wrote a commentary titled Science for the Have-Nots. It was advocated that major reforms of the governing systems, aided by a new type of partnership between the developing world and the developed one, is needed in order to change the plight of the 80% world population of have-nots. In this Essay we raise a concern about the state of education and science in the countries of the haves—the developed world...

When I came to the United States in 1969,
I was not dreaming of a Nobel Prize,
nor was I dreaming of acquiring a Bill
Gates fortune. Armed with the excellent education I
received in Egypt, I was simply on a quest for knowledge
and a PhD degree from a reputable institution in
the United States...

I am honored and gratified to receive the Priestley Medal. This highest honor of the American Chemical Society comes from a society I have been associated with for decades and with which I continue to have strong relations, not only as a member and fellow, but also with its institutions, the board of directors, the society journals, and the super-dynamic Executive Director & CEO Madeleine Jacobs...

On a recent official visit to southeast Asia, a prime minister
asked me: "What does it take to get a Nobel prize?" I answered
immediately: "Invest in basic research and recruit the best
minds." This curiosity-driven approach seems increasingly oldfashioned
and underappreciated in our modern age of science. Some
believe that more can be achieved through tightly managed research—as if we can predict the future. I believe this is an unfortunate misconception
that affects and infects research funding. History teaches us the value of free scientific inquisitiveness...

In over a century of developments, the discipline of chemical physics, which evolved from physical chemistry, has had a major impact on chemistry and all related molecular sciences, including biology and materials science. While physicists were working to decipher the structure of the atom—and indeed managed to tame it—chemical physicists were trailblazing into the world of molecules with new tools, some from physics, and new concepts. In retrospect the impact is monumental, considering that in 1938 the most versatile organic laboratory instrument was the thermometer...

It is now possible to determine three-dimensional structures, with atomic scale resolution, in systems ranging from small molecules to crystals, and from DNA and proteins to viruses and particles. The latest is the work on the structure of the ribosome protein-making machine which was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. However, a full description of biological functions, chemical reactions or phase transitions requires real-time visualization of the actual events, i.e. the ability to follow a sequence of steps characterizing a given process...

As far as the twenty-first century is concerned, the major issues facing the
world are many, but I would rather focus on the ones that threaten our
peaceful coexistence. The first is education. It is disturbing that in the
knowledge-based twenty-first century there are countries with populations approaching
50% illiteracy. And women are not given the appropriate status
for education and career opportunities in many countries, so the
workforce is reduced in value...

A. H. Zewail. The World in 50 Years, in
The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today, ed. M. Wallace, Thomas
Nelson, Nashville, 2008, p. 228.

The world is an uncertain place, which is why the future and the unknown absolutely fascinate us. Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace asked the question "What will life be like 50 years from now?" to sixty of the world's greatest minds. Their responses offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods of the times...

Since the beginning of human civilization, science and technology has progressed in a
continuous process. Fire must have been an exciting new technology for the first humans
and to this day we are continuing research to fully answer the question, what is fire?
But the search for new knowledge is based on rational thinking, which is fundamental
for progress and for making new discoveries...

How best to recognize Caltech's own Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, and director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology, who has served on Caltech's faculty for 40 years? President Thomas F. Rosenbaum had the answer: what he would later call a "quintessentially Caltech conference"...

At the nanoscale, where objects are measured in billionths of meters and events transpire in trillionths of seconds, things do not always behave as our experiences with the macro-world might lead us to expect. Water, for example, seems to flow much faster within carbon nanotubes than classical physics says should be possible. Now imagine trying to capture movies of these almost imperceptibly small nanoscale movements...

FEI (Nasdaq:FEIC) today released the TecnaiTM Femto ultrafast electron microscope (UEM), enabling scientists to explore ultrafast events and processes that occur at the atomic and molecular spatial scale over time spans measured in femtoseconds (10-15 seconds). These include such fundamental processes as the absorption of light energy and its transformation into heat or mechanical changes (photoactuation) and the crystallization or recrystallization of materials &mdash including large biological molecules for structural analysis. The Tecnai Femto is the first system to commercialize the patented ultrafast electron microscopy technology pioneered by Nobel laureate Prof. Ahmed Zewail at the California Institute of Technology. The first Tecnai Femto UEM will be installed at the University of Minnesota in November 2013...

Ahmed Zewail, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, has been selected as one of 26 members of a new Scientific Advisory Board established by the United Nations secretary-general.
The board, which will meet twice per year, will provide advice on science, technology, and innovation concerning sustainable development to the secretary-general and the heads of UN organizations. The creation of this new board, which was formally announced September 24 at the UN's first High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, was the result of a recommendation from the report of the High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability in January 2012...

Every great structure, from the Empire State Building to the Golden Gate Bridge, depends on specific mechanical properties to remain strong and reliable. Rigidity &mdash a material's stiffness &mdash is of particular importance for maintaining the robust functionality of everything from colossal edifices to the tiniest of nanoscale structures. In biological nanostructures, like DNA networks, it has been difficult to measure this stiffness, which is essential to their properties and functions. But scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have recently developed techniques for visualizing the behavior of biological nanostructures in both space and time, allowing them to directly measure stiffness and map its variation throughout the network...

Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been named one of the Top American Leaders of 2011 by The Washington Post and Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership. Six other people, including New Jersey governor Chris Christie and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, were chosen to receive the distinction, which recognizes "outstanding leadership" in any area of interest.
"Ahmed's exceptional achievements as pioneering scientist, an extraordinary professor, and a regarded statesman of the world make him an ideal candidate to receive this honor," says Caltech president Jean-Lou Chameau...

Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail, Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, has received the Royal Society's Davy Medal "for his seminal contributions to the study of ultrafast reactions and the understanding of transition states in chemistry, and to dynamic electron microscopy."
First awarded in 1877, the medal is named after the 19th-century British chemist and inventor Sir Humphry Davy, who was a Fellow of the Royal Society and became its president in 1820...

Ahmed H. Zewail, Ph.D., 1999 Chemistry Nobel Laureate and Linus
Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, today will
receive the 2011 Priestley Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Chemical Society (ACS),
the world's largest scientific society.
The award will be presented at a banquet ceremony in the Anaheim Marriott Hotel during the ACS' 241st
National Meeting and Exposition. More than 13,000 scientists and others are expected for the week-long
event, which includes 9,500 reports on new advances in science, and
is one of the largest scientific conferences of the year....

Renowned chemist and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), will be the speaker for Caltech's 117th annual commencement ceremony, which will take place at 10 a.m. on June 10 of this year.
"Professor Zewail is an esteemed scientist and statesman," says Caltech president Jean-Lou Chameau. "Our graduates will benefit greatly from his wisdom as they prepare to enter a world where scientists and engineers are increasingly called upon to provide leadership throughout the civic arena..."

Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale matter have been used to image the evanescent electrical fields produced by the interaction of electrons and photons, and to track changes in atomic-scale structures.
Papers describing the novel technologies appear in the December 17 issue of Nature and the October 30 issue of Science.
Four-dimensional (4D) microscopy — the methodology upon which the new techniques were based — was developed at Caltech's Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology...

Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been named an envoy in the new U.S. Science Envoy Program, created to foster science and technology collaborations between the United States and nations throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. Zewail, who was also appointed to President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology earlier this year, is one of three eminent Americans who will serve as the first scientist-diplomats in the new program...

President Barack Obama named Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail of Caltech to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Zewail, 63, of San Marino, is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and a physics professor at Caltech. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for his pioneering work in femtoscience, which makes it possible to observe atoms in motion.
Zewail will maintain his current duties at Caltech, according to the school. His new responsibilities involve joining scientists, educators and other experts in meeting with Obama every other month. The council is tasked with advising the president on matters of education, energy, health, climate change, environment, security and the economy...

More than a century ago, the development of the earliest motion picture technology made what had been previously thought "magical" a reality: capturing and recreating the movement and dynamism of the world around us. A breakthrough technology based on new concepts has now accomplished a similar feat, but on an atomic scale—by allowing, for the first time, the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure and shape of matter barely a billionth of a meter in size.
Such "movies" of atomic changes in materials of gold and graphite, obtained using the technique, are featured in a paper appearing in the November 21 issue of the journal Science. 4D microscopy videos can be viewed at the UST web site...

The World Cultural Council will present the 2006 Albert Einstein World Award of Science to Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.
This recognition is for his "pioneering development of the new field of femtoscience and for his seminal contributions to the revolutionary discipline of physical biology, creating new ways for better understanding the functional behavior of biological systems by directly visualizing them in the four dimensions of space and time," according to the World Cultural Council's announcement...

Nobel Prize-winning chemist and physicist Ahmed Zewail has received an $17.5
million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to create the
Ultrafast Science and Technology (UST) Center at the California Institute of Technology.
The center will focus on a new scientific discipline at Caltech for which Zewail has coined the name physical biology. The field will create new ways of understanding the dynamical behavior of biological systems by directly observing them in the four dimensions of space and time...

A. H. Zewail. Franklin's Vision,
Speech at the Annual General Meeting of the American
Philosophical Society in celebration of the Franklin Tercentenary,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 27, 2006.

On this special occasion of the Tercentenary, I am
especially delighted to speak in honor of a polymath and an
American icon, Benjamin Franklin. Since his death in
1790, Franklin has been revered, memorialized, and made into an educational,
financial, and political icon. Through his collective work this
sage has climbed to the apex of human endeavor in the sciences, public
service, and statesmanship in international relations. Such great heights
for a man of wit and wisdom are reached by very few in the world, both
then and now...

Scientific research is the subject of this lecture, but I
wish to focus here on one of its pillars—the value of curiosity-driven research and its impact on our life, the life of
the "haves" and "have-nots". For this scientific endeavour,
I will demonstrate my point from the study of one phenomenon
that has occupied the thinking of humans
throughout history—it is the phenomenon of light. What
is light?

Ever since the dawn of history, humans have been the benefactors of time's miracles,
but at the same time they have been baffled by time's mysteries. More than six
millennia ago, the philosophy and measurement of time occupied the minds of
scholars in the land of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and, even today we struggle with the
meaning of time. In this overview, I present some concepts and techniques developed
in the science and technology of time, and an exposé of some of the
mysteries and
miracles that are in harmony with physical and life sciences...

A. H. Zewail. It is Possible,
One Hundred Reasons to be a Scientist, 2nd ed., ICTP, Trieste, 2005,
p. 260.

On the banks of the Nile, the Rosetta branch, I was
born in Damanhur, the "City of Horus", only 60 km
from Alexandria. In retrospect, it is remarkable that my
childhood origins were flanked by two great places—Rosetta, the city where the famous Stone was
discovered, and Alexandria, the home of ancient
learning...

Picture this: a movie revealing the inner workings
of a cell or showing a nanomachine in action.
A new microscopy is making such imaging possible. Four-dimensional electron
microscopy produces "movies"
of nanoscale processes occurring
over time intervals as short as
femtoseconds (10-15 second). The technique builds up each
frame of the movie from thousands
of individual shots taken
at precisely defined times.
It has applications in a wide
range of fields, including materials
science, nanotechnology
and medicine...

In this paper, the evolutionary and revolutionary developments of microscopic imaging are overviewed with a perspective on origins. From Alhazen's camera obscura, to Hooke and van Leeuwenhoek's two-dimensional optical micrography, and on to three- and four-dimensional (4D) electron microscopy, these developments over a millennium have transformed humans' scope of visualization. The changes in the length and time scales involved are unimaginable, beginning with the visible shadows of candles at the centimetre and second scales, and ending with invisible atoms with space and time dimensions of sub-nanometre and femtosecond...

For decades, researchers have relied on static images provided by electron
microscopy and static diffraction patterns provided by X-ray crystallography to
infer how a system operates. The major drawback to these otherwise very powerful
techniques is that no direct experimental evidence is gathered about the
structure of the transition states of the system. That is, these techniques can only
provide information about the three spatial dimensions; while information about
how the system behaves in the fourth dimension—time—remains a mystery.
Therefore, to overcome this fundamental problem, a methodology that can access
all four dimensions simultaneously must be realized and demonstrated. The
development of such a technology would mark a great day in the advancement of
human knowledge. Fortunately, that day has arrived with the advent of Ultrafast
Electron Microscopy (UEM)...

The concept of the atom, proposed
24 centuries ago and rejected by Aristotle,
was born on a purely philosophical basis,
surely without anticipating some of the
20th century's most triumphant scientific
discoveries. Atoms can now be seen, observed
in motion, and manipulated...

With ultrashort pulses of laser light, it has become possible to observe
physical, chemical and biological changes with a resolution of femtoseconds, 15
orders of magnitude faster than the human heart beat, reaching the scale of
atomic motion, spatial and temporal...

In 1872 railroad magnate Leland
Stanford wagered $25,000 that a
galloping horse, at some point in
stride, lifts all four hooves off the
ground. To prove it, Stanford employed
English photographer Eadweard Muybridge.
After many attempts, Muybridge
developed a camera shutter that
opened and closed for only two thousandths
of a second, enabling him to
capture on film a horse flying through
the air.
During the past century, all scientific
disciplines from astrophysics to zoology
have exploited high-speed photography
to revolutionize understanding
of animal and mechanical motions that
are quicker than the eye can follow...

With new laser techniques and with gas
phase and molecular beam
experiments, it is now possible to
determine the ultrafast motion in
isolated chemical reactions: chemistry
on the 10-13-second time scale...

Some members of Congress have criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi lately and called for a reduction in or elimination of U.S. military aid as a way of punishing his administration. After meeting with Sisi in Cairo recently and talking to a wide range of citizens there, I have come to understand why most Egyptians now support him...

The Middle East is rich in human and natural resources, but many of its countries need a cultural and scientific transformation to reach worldwide recognition in education, research and economic productivity. Several institutions are making a positive impact, kindling hope for a successful 'science spring'...

In the past few years, an awakening, through the 'Arab Spring', has focused on a political dimension of societal change. While the process of transformation begins with democracy, it does not end there. Though public uprisings have brought political changes, a new revolution is needed to transform the culture of learning...

When I was a boy in Desuq, Egypt, a city on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, about 50 miles east of Alexandria, my family lived steps away from the local landmark, a mosque named for a 13th-century Sufi sheik. Five times a day, we would hear the call to prayer. Our imam encouraged us to study, telling my friends and me, again and again, of the message revealed by the Prophet Muhammad: "iqra" &mdash read! Education was in the fabric of our culture and religion...

The uprising of millions of Egyptians since June 30 has led to sharp polarization. Growing up in Egypt, I never saw the country as divided as it is today. Efforts to rebuild the nation must focus on justice, reconciliation, and inclusiveness...

Egypt is in turmoil, and many so-called experts have concluded that religion is the cause. It is not. The source of turmoil is the gap between expectations of speedy change by those who made the people's revolution two years ago and the slow process of building an entirely new society...

From Nazi Germany to Rwanda, some of the most inhumane atrocities and genocides were committed while the rest of the world was watching. Today we are all witnessing atrocities and mass destruction in Syria. Again we are observing it all unfold before our eyes, with heavy hearts perhaps, but no effective intervention to stop it...

On Sunday August 5, 2012, I was among a group of people who witnessed the Rover landing on Mars in real time at NASA's Caltech-managed Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The excitement of this historic moment was overwhelming as we saw the one-ton, car-like Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) breakthrough the red plant's atmosphere and slow its speed from 13,000 mph to zero. One glimpse of those first images from over 100 million miles away demonstrates America's leadership in innovation...

A few days ago, I watched a debate between Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, two of the leading candidates among the 13 running for president of Egypt. This stunning debate went on for more than four hours and was watched by millions of Egyptians and other Arabs. Contrary to the perception around the world that Egypt is inexorably sinking into chaos and intolerance, this debate in many ways reflects the hope for a new Egypt following last year's revolution...

Constitutional, judicial and media reforms along with better education and health care are the next challenges in the quest to build a democratic state.
Egyptians are voting to elect a democratic parliament, an experience they have not had for over half a century. This is an extraordinary and exhilarating event. What's remarkable about it, among other things, is that only a week before the plebiscite began, an on-schedule election was thought to be impossible...

"Where is Egypt going?" a driver named Mohamed asked me recently. It is the question on everyone's mind as the Arab Spring of popular revolution is giving way to the new season of free elections this autumn. At this unique moment in history, there are two critical challenges that face this nation at the heart of the Arab world. The first is how to further catalyze and consolidate the democratic transition through re-establishing unity among all Egyptians. The second is the related issue of achieving a commitment to peace in the Middle East that is genuinely supported by the Egyptian public...

Nearly 100 days after the revolution, Egypt is very different from the country
I experienced when millions were on the streets calling for the fall of Hosni
Mubarak's regime. Despite a myriad of problems, now there is a new energy, or, as
the Egyptians say hawa gadid — a new air. The big question is how to channel this
energy to forge a new Egypt that is democratic and sustainable, both politically and
economically...

As I was leaving Cairo after Hosni Mubarak stepped down, I asked Esraa, a young
woman who was one of the leaders of the revolution: "What was your objective?" She
said, "taghier al nezam", a change of the system. The Egyptians brought down the
head of the system, but not the system itself. That is the challenge now...

Scientific research in the Arabian, Persian and Turkish Middle East lags behind that of the west. Of course, there are individual scientists who produce world-class research and there are institutions and nations which make significant contributions in certain fields. Publication and citation indicators show some encouraging trends. But naturally one asks: "Why have Arab, Persian and Turkish scientists as a group underperformed compared with their colleagues in the West or with those rising in the East?"

The process of transformation begins with democracy, but it does not end there. The first
uprising brings political change; a second is now needed to transform Arab learning. The
failure of Arab education is one of the underlying causes of youth discontent in the region
and has serious cultural, economic and political consequences...

The Egyptian people have overthrown the
Mubarak regime in a peaceful revolution.
Now that the tumult has subsided, the hard
work of reconstruction must begin. There is
a strange mix of excitement and trepidation
in the air, but underlying it all is the
prospect of real progress — not least in
reintroducing Egypt's leadership of the
Arab world...

A. H. Zewail. Egypt's Next Steps, International Herald Tribune, February 3, 2011 (also published in the New York Times on February 2, 2011).

The revolt that has erupted across Egypt is in many ways historic and should take the nation into a hopeful future. What's unexpected, even by the Egyptians themselves, is that this intifada is led by youth, the so-called Facebook children, with no religious or ideological agenda other than a better future for Egypt and its people...

Earlier this year I was in Alexandria, speaking about educational reform in front of a packed auditorium of students,
teachers, and professionals. I was there as the US president's science envoy to the Middle East. I was surrounded by
talented young people, ambitious for themselves and for their country. They represent the hope of Egyptian society
and are the ones whom Barack Obama's Cairo initiative, "to seek a new beginning between the United States and
Muslims around the world ... based upon mutual interest and mutual respect", must motivate and engage...

In today's world, America's soft power is commonly thought to reside in the global popularity of Hollywood
movies, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Starbucks. But the facts tell a different story. In a recent poll involving 43
countries, 79% of respondents said that what they most admire about the United States is its leadership in science
and technology. The artifacts of the American entertainment industry came in a distant second...

Throughout human history, science and technology have been the backbone of innovations that
have driven economic development. Yet, rather oddly, they have not been seriously invoked in the
pursuit of diplomacy. This Commentary examines the important role of science in diplomacy and
its soft-power in world affairs and peace...

In August, I returned to Egypt, the country of my birth, for the first time since President Obama
spoke in June at the University of Cairo. I discussed the president's address with a veteran
Egyptian diplomat, who described its impact as "historic". Mr. Obama's words were regarded as a
momentous break from the past, spoken by an American president who respects Muslim faith
and culture, and is optimistic about future relations with Muslim nations...

Tomorrow Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain should have been going toe-to-toe in a televised science debate. All three were invited by a bipartisan group of Nobel laureates and other scholars called ScienceDebate 2008 to step on stage at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and explain how they will ensure that America continues to dominate the sciences. Leading in scientific research and advancement is an essential element to our future prosperity, health and national defense...

The cataclysmic wars in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq have uncovered the reality of Arab unity and plight, and the collective conscience of international society. It is abundantly clear that the Arab people must themselves build a new system for a new future. The current state, as judged by a low GDP, high level of illiteracy, and deteriorating performance in education and science, is neither in consonance with their hearts and minds nor does it provide for their political, economic, and educational aspirations...

Five years after September 11, we must ask, can western wars solve the so-called global conflict with the Islamic world? The answer, in my opinion, is no. A far better state of world peace would be achieved if the West would make a serious commitment to the just resolution of conflicts, and be genuinely involved, using a fraction of war costs, in building bridges to progress and peace with an understanding of the profound role of pride and faith in the lives of Muslims...

I recently read an important study that left me in awe of the knowledge demographics
of our planet. In Educating All Children: A Global Agenda, Joel Cohen
and David Bloom argue that while the aim of achieving primary and secondary
schooling for all children is urgent and feasible, more than three hundred million
children will not be in school in the year 2015. Empowering future generations with
contemporary liberal arts education represents a significant challenge, even for highly
developed nations...

On this year's Bastille Day in July, the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, inaugurated
a new initiative for uniting the Mediterranean South with Europe in general, and France
in particular. The aim of the Mediterranean Union (MU), an analogue of the post-Cold War
European Union (EU), is to "lay the foundations of a political, economic and cultural union
founded on the principles of strict equality." Comprising 27 EU members and states from the
Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans, the MU would in principle unite close to 800 million
people. In June, a meeting was held at the Institut de France with representation from many
academies, scientists, and politicians to discuss possible cooperative programs. The goals
expressed at the meeting are admirable; however, the MU's motives need to be clearly defined,
as the issues for the MU are very different from those for the EU. Most important, thus far missing
in the fabric of the former is an explicit role for education and science...

Over the last century, our world has experienced at times a "beautiful age"
with promises of peace and prosperity, but then some imposing forces changed
the entire landscape. History reminds us of recurrences, and the current state
of the world is not so different that we may ask—what political and economic
forces cause such disorder in a world seeking prosperity through globalization
and revolutionary advances in technology? Here we will address the need for a
rational world vision that must take into account developments in the
population of the have-nots and dialogues of cultures. It is a vision of
economic, political, religious, and cultural dimensions in world affairs. Only
with such a vision can we shape a bright future for our
world...

The 2002 UNESCO conference, "Science et la quête du sens" in Paris,
was devoted to science and the quest for meaning; the English title,
"Science and the Spiritual Quest", emphasizes the spiritual dimension,
a realm beyond science. Similarly, this chapter, which is based on my
lecture given at the conference, is concerned with dimensions beyond
science—our human existence in civilizations and cultures that may or
may not be in a state of clash...

I am pleased to have this opportunity to share with you some personal reflections on current issues which I believe may well be at the core of world peace and stability. Science education and development through science are the subject of my presentation, and I thought I would use my personal journey through two cultures, one currently developing and the other developed, to address issues of concern and what should be done to achieve progress...

Only a fifth of the population enjoys the benefit of life in the 'developed world', and the gap between the haves and have-nots continues to increase, threatening stability. According to the World Bank, of the 6 billion people on Earth, 4.8 billion live in developing countries, 3 billion live on less than US$2 a day, and 1.2 billion live on less than $1 a day, which defines the absolute poverty standard; 1.5 billion people do not have access to clean water...

The Ahmed Zewail Foundation for Knowledge and
Development was established through the American
University in Cairo as a non-profit, non-political organization with the purpose of
disseminating useful knowledge. The Foundation currently provides prizes for
young people who "demonstrate extraordinary commitment to the
pursuit of scientific inquiry and the affirmation of humanistic values". In addition, at the Opera House one
prize is given annualy for outstanding achievements and creativity in
the arts.